Rebuilting my AMC 304

Salutations to all of you.

I own a 79 CJ5 renegade and love the car from day 1.
I've driven it along the States from the Pacific to the Atlantic, taken it to mexico and even to Europe. It has seen the desert, the mountain, lots of highway and dirt road as well as the Eiffel Tower and the suisse Alpes.

I've worked on the car to keep it running for the past 7 years as it was my only one...Now it is a second car that has deaserved some attention.

Everything on it is original including the paint and I intend to keep it this way but as I want to seriously give it a new youth.

After this little somewhat sentimental speech let me finaly move on:

I am looking at the engine first and would appreciate your imputs about rebuilting my 304.
I was thinking of removing the engine and have it shipped to a shop for total remanufacturing/upgrade. Therefor I would appreciate some good shop references as it is hard to make a choice by looking online.

I'm not opposed to upgrade the engine as long as the reliability remains intact. Should I consider boring the engine bigger, upgrading internal components etc...

Thank you.

 

Welcome from Utah First of all you own a Jeep not a car.....R) I get alot of parts from 4WDhardware.

 

That's right, I love the Jeep 'cause it's a great c...Jeep!
Who said car? Certainly not me

 

check out www.bulltear.com and www.amxfiles.com. those two sites are about the best sites i have found for amc v8s. anyway, a lot of people are gonna say just swap in a chevy, so don't listen to them. keep the amc in there. the main up grade that you should have done, is an oiling system mod that increases oil flow to the crank. usually called the lifter bypass mod. another mod i think should be done is ugrade on the later model oil filter adapter or plate. this does away with the oil filter bypass, a really good thing. good luck to ya.

oh yeah, waas sappienning from nc.

 

Welcome from Washington, good to have you on board. Not much help with shops. After having the block bored hot tanked or what ever, I like to do my own work.

 

Welcome,

Where are you from? There could be a good engine builder nearby and you would save on shipping.

Any chance you could expand on your Jeep trip to Europe?

 

Re: Rebuilding my AMC 304

the main up grade that you should have done, is an oiling system mod that increases oil flow to the crank. usually called the lifter bypass mod. another mod i think should be done is ugrade on the later model oil filter adapter or plate. this does away with the oil filter bypass

I have a 1976 304 CJ7 and tried Googling the info on oil system mod...no luck, any links?

 

Re: Rebuilding my AMC 304

That's a good modification for a race engine, but IMO you don't need it for a street engine. It's more important that you assess the timing cover for wear, and replace or repair if worn. If you have good oil pressure, and keep the oil clean, the stock oiling system will be fine.

 

Thank you very much for your replies,

I'm gonna check out these websites.

What would you like to know about trips to Europ? What I can tell you is that it is a lot of fun to drive a CJ over there were CJ's were imported by Renault but had the US power plant removed in the process to be given a poor 1.7L 4 cylinder non turbo diesel engine: the CJ are rare and known as cars that can hardly reach 55 Mph downhill with tail wind if you floor it hard!
I just love when some French dude thinking he is the king on the road with one of those little sporty 4 cylinders cars can't get you of his back bumper wondering how in hell is this Old CJ still tailing me!!!?

I know it sounds a little childish but I just have a blast every time. :driving:

Besides that, touring around in an opened Jeep is just really cool on those curly mountain roads, thru villages and all. Very good way of visiting.

The only bug is that it costs around $1300 one way to ship the car and it takes a while for it to get there.

The reason why I did it is because even if I leave in Arizona I have family overseas and that's where my CJ stays. This is also the reason why I'm gonna have to ship the engine to a US shop cause it would be complicated and very expensive to find parts and skills overthere. I am trying to come up with a plan to rebuilt my 304 because once I get it back over there I wouldn't like to find out that it isn't right

 

Welcome from taxachusetts. Any competent machine shop should be able to rebuild that motor for you. You may be looking at around $2500 though. However that would be you dropping off an old, tired, dirty motor and picking up a clean rebuilt a few days later. Keep it stock.

 

Thank you all for the welcomes.

I see you recommand that I keep it stock.

Since I'm gonna have it professionaly rebuilt why wouldn't I have it improved at the same time (cams, head, bore...)? Is it because there not much to improve on that engine? Or is it a reliability issue?

I am still interested in having a good shop reference, a shop that some of you trust more than others for its good work.

Thanks.